The advent of electronic dart machines brought with it the automation and consequent simplification of scoring. Not only do these dart machines obviate the need for players to track the score as a game progresses, but they also eliminate intentional and inadvertent scoring errors that could otherwise occur as a result of mathematical miscalculation on the part of the players. Additionally, built into these dart machines are other features that reduce the amount of attention that the players must direct to procedural aspects of game play. For example, once all of a player's darts have been thrown for a particular round, the dart machine can be advanced to begin scoring for the next player and will automatically indicate which player is to throw next. Additionally, these dart machines sometimes include an infrared sensor to automatically change scoring to the next player by sensing when a person moves into close proximity to the dart machine to remove the darts from the machine's target (dart board). Because of these conveniences, players need do little more than strategize and throw their darts.
These advantages have made electronic dart machines well suited for use in league and tournament play. However, scoring of individual games is but one aspect of league and tournament play. Operation of a league or tournament additionally involves administrative matters, such as organization of players into teams, determining matches and player rotations for games within each match, and combining the results of game and match play for statistical purposes (such as handicapping) and to determine future player pairings and an ultimate winner. Accordingly, it has been proposed to link together electronically scored amusement games for the purposes of automating the scoring of league and tournament play and permitting such play using amusement games located in remote locations. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,271 to Thatcher et al. which shows such a system for electronically scored amusement games in general, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,114,155 to Tillery et al. which is directed to electronic dart machines in particular.
One problem inherent in the systems disclosed in these two patents is that in order to implement league or tournament play, the organization and pairings for the first round of matches must be handled by a central computer prior to play of that first round. That is, a participant must first register and then be worked into the first round pairings by the central computer. Otherwise, information regarding the participants, which matches they played, and in what player position must be manually recorded and then later manually entered and associated with the game results uploaded to the central computer. This is disadvantageous because it may be desirable to permit league participants not only to register and organize themselves into teams using the dart machines at the remote locations, but also to then immediately begin league play without having to wait for the registration of all participants and determination of player and team pairings by the central computer.
In the systems disclosed in these two patents, the league and/or tournament database, which includes such information as teams, players, player handicaps, type of game played for that league, game options, and player rotation order, is not shared with the individual electronic dart machines that form part of league and tournament system for any purpose other than display on a monitor at the remote locations. This is disadvantageous for several reasons. First, once a participant has been registered and entered into the database at the central computer, that participant's identification must be provided to the electronic game prior to each scheduled match, necessitating that the participant either carry a player card or remember an ID or password that is manually entered into the dart machine. Second, player handicaps maintained by the central computer are not provided to the dart machines and implemented automatically by the software that runs game play. Third, the league/tournament database information is not used by the dart machine to control the game selection and set-up. Rather, participants must manually choose the games and game options.
The introduction of electronic dart machines has also brought with it certain problems. Among these are: 1) permitting the play and scoring of a multitude of different games that can be played on conventional dart boards; 2) providing a simple user interface for selecting among the multitude of different games and game set-ups; and 3) implementing player handicaps. The difficulty in permitting play of a multitude of games arises in part from limitations inherent in the scoring displays utilized by electronic dart machines. For example, electronic dart machines usually include a matrix scoring display for the conventional game of cricket, with groups of three mark indicator lights being permanently designated 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, and bullseye for each of up to four players. The problem with such a scoring display is that it does not permit display of the scoring of marks for other variations of cricket in which numbers other than 15 through 20 are used as the targeted numbers. Also, as the choice of games to play on electronic dart machines has continued to increase, the user interface necessary to permit selection and set-up of those games has become more complicated and burdensome for the player. For electronic dart machines, that user interface typically involves one or more selection buttons or switches on the machine cabinet with the various games and options pre-printed on the cabinet face. Selection of a game and/or option is indicated by, for example, an LED located adjacent each of the pre-printed game and option selections. Such an arrangement makes it difficult to indicate which of the printed options apply to which of the games.
Implementing player handicaps on electronic dart machines creates several problems. First, players have different handicaps depending upon the type of game being played and upon whether the game is being played under the American Dart Association (ADA) or National Dart Association (NDA) rules. For instance, the ADA utilizes a points per dart handicap that is used to modify the player's starting score, whereas the NDA utilizes spot handicapping where the player gets to throw and score one or more darts prior to commencement of the game. To implement such handicaps on conventional electronic dart machines, the handicaps must be entered using the machine's target during the first round of game play. However, since the game treats the handicap as points scored during game play, statistical analysis of the players' game scores (e.g., points per dart) is incorrectly and undesirably influenced by their handicap. Thus, a player's handicap prior to game play would affect the determination of that player's updated handicap after game play.